US Patent No. 6,818,886. Detection method. Inventor: Kurt Tiefenthaler. Assignee: Artificial Sensing Instruments.
This invention consists of detection systematics in which integrated optical chemo- and biosensorics are combined with mass spectrometry in a desorption. The desorption step releases the molecules from the surface of the sensor chip. The mass spectrometer measures the masses and/or degree of ionization of the molecules. The invention further increases detection sensitivity as well as the security of detection.
US Patent No. 6,818,454. Phosophoprotein binding agents and methods for their use. Inventors: Michael Goshe, Thomas Conrads, Timothy Veenstra, Ellen Panisko. Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute.
This invention provides reagents and methods for characterizing the phosphorylation states of proteins. Proteins may be post-transcriptionally modified such that they contain phosphate groups at either some, or all serine, threonine, tyrosine, histidine and/or lysine amino acid residues. The current invention provides powerful methods for diagnosing various diseases and for furthering the understanding of protein-protein interactions.
US Patent No. 6,818,411. Retentate chromatography and protein chip arrays with applications in biology and medicine. Inventors: William Hutchens, Tai-Tung Yip. Assignee: Ciphergen Biosystems.
This invention provides methods of retentate chromatography for resolving analytes in a sample. The methods involve adsorbing the analytes to a substrate under a plurality of different selectivity conditions, and detecting the analytes retained on the substrate by desorption spectrometry. In one aspect, this invention provides a unified operating system for the discovery or diagnosis of gene function, protein function, or the function of entire macromolecular assemblies, cells, and whole organisms.
US Patent No. 6,818,399. Methods employing generalized target-binding e-tag probes. Inventors: Sharat Singh, Hossein Salimi-Moosavi, Vivian Xiao. Assignee: Aclara Biosciences.
In this invention, methods for the multiplexed detection of the binding of, or interaction between, one or more ligands and target antiligands are provided. Detection involves the release of identifying tags as a consequence of target recognition. The methods include the use of electrophoretic tag probes, or e-tag probes, comprising a detection region and a mobility-defining region called the mobility modifier. In practice, target antiligands are contacted with a set of e-tag probes and the contacted antiligands are treated with a selected cleaving agent resulting in a mixture of e-tag reporters and uncleaved or partially cleaved e-tag probes. The mixture is exposed to a capture agent effective to bind to cleaved or partially cleaved e-tag probes, followed by electrophoretic separation.
US Patent No. 6,818,112. Protein separation via multidimensional electrophoresis. Inventors: Luke Schneider, Michael Hall, Robert Petesch. Assignee: Target Discovery.
This invention provides methods and apparatus for separating proteins using a series of electrophoretic methods that use controlled fractionation and labeling techniques to resolve mixtures of proteins. The methods can be used in a variety of different applications including creating proteomic database, comparative expression studies, diagnostics, structure activity relationships and metabolic engineering investigations.
US Patent No. 6,816,259. Method and apparatus for automated excision of samples from two-dimensional electrophoresis gels. Inventors: Kevin Auton, Paul Thomas Ryan, David Byatt.
A system for automated excision of one or more samples from a sample media is provided. The system uses a device for electronically capturing one or more traits of samples in the media, using a microprocessor linked to the device to analyze the captured traits by comparing them to a reference database. After identifying samples of interest at location coordinates in the sample media, a novel robotic excision tool automatically excises and processes the samples.
US Patent No. 6,815,078. Substrate for protein microarray containing functionalized polymer. Inventors: Tiecheng Qiao, Jeffrey Leon, Thomas Penner, Zhihao Yang. Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company.
This invention consists of a gelatin-based substrate in which the gelatin surface is modified to improve specific attachment of biological molecules. The substrate consists of a gelatin having at least one surface and a polymer scaffold affixed to the gelatin surface that is rich in reactive units capable of immobilizing proteins.